Meanwhile back in Bloomington...
Hoosiers by 7 with 1:22 left, and the Hawkeye Intentional Fouling Festival is now in full swing.
Hoosiers by 7 with 1:22 left, and the Hawkeye Intentional Fouling Festival is now in full swing.
I miss what UConn had and it really hit home when they played down at Houston and the building was totally empty.mabrowndog said:I'm floored by all the empty seats at Houston. I mean, holy shit. You're the 4th-largest city in America, you have an incredible college basketball legacy at that school, and you've got the #21 team in the nation in your building. Instead, just vast expanses of empty red fabric as far as the eye can see. Way to support the team, morons.
Anyway, Cougars lead by 2 with under 3:00 left.
OREM, Utah -- A wild brawl involving players and fans who came onto the court broke out when New Mexico State guard K.C. Ross-Miller hurled the ball at Utah Valley's Holton Hunsaker seconds after the Wolverines' 66-61 overtime victory against the Aggies on Thursday night.
Ross-Miller picked up the ball at midcourt and fired it at Hunsaker -- the son of Utah Valley coach Dick Hunsaker -- from close range, hitting him in the leg.
New Mexico State guard DK Eldridge was in the middle of the scrum before he was dragged away by Aggies coaches as order was restored.
"It was a very heated, emotional game, and if any of my guys did anything that was out of line, they will be punished to the 10th degree," New Mexico State coach Marvin Menzies said in an interview posted on the school's website. "That may affect wins and losses, but they need to learn some life lessons after something like that. That is not going to happen in my program, and it's just embarrassing."
"I don't know what exactly happened. I was kind of going over to shake hands," Menzies said. "I want to apologize for K.C.'s actions. From what I understand, he threw the ball after the game was over and had expired. I don't know what provoked it. I mean, Hunsaker's a little chippy himself so he may have said something or done something, but you just can't respond. I mean, we showed them plenty of clips where they do things that can get underneath your skin a little bit and you've got to be tougher than that mentally, and I'm just upset that he did that."
Menzies initially indicated Ross-Miller wouldn't play in the team's next game Saturday at Bakersfield, but then said he needs to see video of the altercation before determining any discipline.
"I've got to look and see what happened," Menzies said. "I don't know what suspensions are going to come down. There's going to be a lot of video to sort through on this. I think the game was over, so I don't know (if) the coming-off-the-bench rule is applied. I think when their fans stormed the court, I think it kind of ... convoluted things a little bit because some of the guys apparently said they felt threatened. Daniel (Mullings) said he actually got hit."
mabrowndog said:I'm floored by all the empty seats at Houston. I mean, holy shit. You're the 4th-largest city in America, you have an incredible college basketball legacy at that school, and you've got the #21 team in the nation in your building. Instead, just vast expanses of empty red fabric as far as the eye can see. Way to support the team, morons.
Anyway, Cougars lead by 2 with under 3:00 left.
mascho said:Punished to the 10th degree? Is that like a strenuous objection?
canderson said:My alma mater clinched the Southland regular season title last night. No one cares, but they're tied for longest home winning streak in the nation and now something like 25-2 for the season. Knowing them, they'll blow the conference championship game and have to go to Washington State or some nonsense for the NIT.
IIRC last year they had an RPI in the 50s or 60s, lost the title game (thanks Kaspar!) and were NIT bound.WayBackVazquez said:Completely disagree. Teams like this rarely even get past the second round of the NIT when they slip up in their tournament. See, eg, SFA last year. They have played ONE top 100 RPI team. Not beaten, PLAYED. Sagarin has them as the 331st SOS. You really don't think Providence or Minnesota could go 27-2 with that schedule? They're not held to perfection. They can lose as many games as they want against the cosmetology schools they play all season; they just need to win their last TWO games.
SFA has a limited travel budget and have for many many years tried to get teams to come to SFA. A&M constantly turns them down, as does LSU, Houston, North Texas, etc. If those guys won't come play you'll never see a team they should be playing (say a San Diego State or Middle Tennessee or a Iona or whatever) will never travel unless some type of NCAA-sponsored event to middle-of-nowhere East Texas.mabrowndog said:
I care, dammit.
It's a shame that even with a stellar season, they'll still have to win their conference tournament in order to get into the NCAAs -- and even then they're likely looking at a 14-seed at best. As fair and inclusive as the NCAA tournament selection process is, favoring middling big-conference schools for at-large slots is one of its few remaining and most blatant flaws. With all due respect to the fans of schools like Providence (62 RPI), NC State (58) or Tennessee (60), I'd much rather see the Lumberjacks (69) in a play-in game than watch a pair of teams that barely finished above .500 in their own conference duke it out for the "we're the king of mediocrity mountain!" award.
A slip-up in the conference tournament would be SFA's first loss since before Thanksgiving. Think about that for a moment. The selection process holds them to much higher standards of perfection despite the Lumberjacks having a massive resource disadvantage. These other, larger schools are allowed to lose multiple games not just because they might not have been the better or more talented team on each given night, but because they're granted forgiveness for uncontrollable factors such as a couple of key players being sick with the flu, a player slipping on a wet spot on the floor and turn the ball over, a crappy call or two by the officials, etc. When those things happen to the middle-tier major conference schools and they lose, they granted clemency. When they happen to an SFA, they're a fatal blow. I'm certain such fates have befallen SFA at various points over the past 3 months, yet they've managed to avoid a single loss on their ledger. Regardless of competition level, it's a remarkable feat worthy of recognition on the national stage.
Yes, these larger colleges and universities have all played tougher schedules than SFA. I get that. But if the goal of the NCAA tournament is to determine the best team in the nation, haven't these mega-schools already failed their test by finishing in 6th or 7th place in their own conferences over an entire season? I admittedly have no idea to what extent SFA attempted to play tougher teams out of conference (their only major conference foe was Texas, a 10-point road loss). But I assume they're at a major budget disadvantage for travel, which precludes heading too far out of the TX/OK/LA/AR region, and likely limits their ability to participate in some of the higher-profile early-season and holiday tournaments, if they could even garner an invitation. So yeah, slotting an SFA in for an NCAA at-large berth would be a far more compelling story, even if they were to get blown out.
Orel Miraculous said:
It's frustrating, but Boston isn't much better. In towns like these, unless there's a number between 1 and 25 next to the home team, no one cares.